1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to holding devices for doors and more particularly to holding devices for the doors of vehicles and most particularly for automobile and truck doors and the like. Door holding devices of the kind provided by this invention are often referred to as infinite-position holding devices or infinite position door checks because they act to hold the door in any open position to which it is moved and left standing, but still permit the door to be readily moved to any other desired position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A door check mechanism is usually present on each vehicle door on all automobiles, recreational vehicles, vans, trucks, and virtually all other vehicles. In many designs, the door check mechanism provides two open detented positions, one at which the door is partially open and the other at which the door is fully open. In some cases, the door check mechanism for a vehicle door provides only one open retention position.
Door check mechanisms of the fixed detent type are quite common and have been used for many years. However, they are far from uniform in construction or in application. In many vehicles, the manufacturer provides a check mechanism that is separate from the door hinges and it is typically mounted at a location midway between the two hinges. In other instances, one of the hinges incorporates a check mechanism in the hinge structure itself.
Attempts have been made to incorporate an infinite door check mechanism into a vehicle and a number of patents have been issued covering such devices (discussed below). None has yet achieved commercial success due to the cost and complexity and well as the short service lives of these prior art mechanisms.
Door check mechanisms have in general exhibited some substantial difficulties over the years including: (i) the need in some designs for frequent lubrication without which they tend to make undesirable noises; (ii) inadequate operating life; (iii) corrosion; (iv) the inability to endure vehicle body processing temperatures associated with the curing of external finishes (400.degree. F.); (v) the inability to be easily separated from the vehicle after painting to permit the door to be separately trimmed and then reassembled to the body; (vi) the occurrence of unacceptable stress and wear on the door hinges caused by loading from the door check; and (vii) the requirement for frequent post installation adjustment during the vehicle life. Each of these problems has been addressed in one or more of the prior art fixed detent door checks but there is no infinite door check that has solved all of these problems.
The tendency for an automobile door to swing open or closed when not desired is frequently caused by factors such as the transverse curvature or crown of a pavement or road, by the slope of a hill, or by a gust of wind. Such a tendency, when in the closing direction, causes the door to strike the legs or other parts of a person entering or leaving the automobile. When in the opening direction, it can cause the door to impact into other people or objects inflicting harm or damage thereto. A particularly costly problem, as reported by automobile insurance companies, happens in parking lots where the opening door of one vehicle bangs into an adjacent vehicle causing damage to the finish that can lead to an insurance claim. This increases the cost of insurance to all automobile owners.
To partially solve this problem, vehicle doors are frequently provided with an inclined hinge axis incident to body design that biases the door to close. This is a desirable feature since it aids in the closing of the door especially by older or physically impaired people and should not be defeated as is done by some infinite position door checks which maintain a friction drag on the vehicle door at all times.
As discussed below, this tendency of a vehicle door to swing in an unwanted manner is prevented or minimized by the infinite door check means of the present invention which is effective to hold the door in any open position in which it is left standing, while permitting a relatively free manual movement of the door to any other desired position and a free self closing action when that is desired. This invention also provides an infinite position door checking mechanism that solves all of the problems of prior art infinite position door checks listed above in a simple and cost effective design. In the context of automobile manufacturing, for example, most of the design implementations of this invention permit the door to be easily removed from the vehicle for trimming and then reassembled entailing only the removal and replacement of a single pin.
The infinite position door check mechanism for regulating pivotal movement of a vehicle door between a closed position and any open position, which mechanism is sometimes incorporated in a hinge, includes an elongated strip member having a flat or curved surface; a cam, or other locking member, which engages one of the strip surfaces with varying amounts of pressure contact depending on whether the door is in the freely opening or closing mode, checked against movement in one direction or checked against movement in both directions. Either the cam or the strip member typically has a resilient plastic, brake material or other non-metallic surface, the other surface generally being metal. The engaging portions of the cam and strip member surfaces are thus preferably dissimilar materials, usually a metal and a non-metal.
Pertinent prior art includes the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,548 to Roethel is one of the early patents on door checks. The checking is done by friction drag that is increased at two checking positions. The effectiveness of this system is degraded when the coefficient of friction changes, and the system has a limited life.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,992,451 to Schonitzer et. al. describes a design that uses continuous sliding friction of a nylon plunger spring loaded against a ramp member. Some viscoelastic effect, or static/dynamic friction, takes place when the door is held in a particular position slightly increasing the resistance to further motion. Problems arise with regard to dirt, moisture, temperature, wearing etc. This may be the first infinite door check patent. The holding power is stronger when the door is in the open position. The continuous friction defeats the automatic door closing system. The holding force is designed to exactly counter-balance the tendency of the door to close by itself. The system is also dependent on sliding friction and therefore strongly affected by the surface condition that may have a coating of oil, grease, moisture etc. or be dry.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,680 to Slattery describes a friction type door checking device that is designed to hold the door in discrete positions. It has the same problems as Schonitzer et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,461,481 to Bachmann describes an infinite position door checking device based on a frictional locking mechanism. The frictional locking mechanism is held in contact with the friction surfaces by means of a biasing spring that exerts its maximum torque and thus creates the maximum wear when the mechanism is in the unlocked position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,333 to Hakala describes an infinite position door check system in which a contact edge of the detent member digs into the friction member to provide a wedging restraint to hold the door. It is thus a friction-based system. The torque spring has its maximum force in the non-detented positions, thus, maximum drag. The system requires careful alignment and is subject to wear. Thus the characteristics will change over time. It does not have an intermediate detenting position. The normal tendency of the door to close under gravity causes the detenting action. The frictional drag works to prevent the door from closing under its own weight thus defeating that desirable function.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,289 to Lohr describes a device including an infinite position hold open hinge. This device is a totally sliding friction dominated system using a plastic brake. A greater force is required to close the door than is required to open the door. There is drag on the door in both directions and higher drag in the closing direction. The brake is made of a material such as nylon or polyurethane that the inventor claims has both a high static coefficient of friction and low sliding coefficient of friction. Although this is the goal, this cannot be achieved due to surface contamination.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,789 to Wize describes a system with four detents thus providing multiple locations for the door. The detenting mechanism slides smoothly over the detents as long as torque is applied to the door. When motion is stopped, the detent falls into the closest spot. This may cause significant motion of the door to get to the nearest door detent. There also is an alignment problem with this device. The detenting is done with rollers, however, so there is no sliding friction except for the friction spring associated with the mechanism that carries the detents over the detenting holes or slots.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,531 to Fox et al. describes an infinite position door hold open using continuous sliding friction to wedge a brake to create a much larger friction. The device is complicated, requires adjustment, is sensitive to dirt, and has no positive intermediate position. Thus, as with all other infinite door checks discussed thus far, the door is either in a position where it will move relatively easily toward a more open position but is checked against closing or else it is in a position where it will move freely toward the closed position but is checked against opening. The friction surfaces are knurled and adjustment is required during the life of the vehicle due to wear of brake surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,547 to Guionie et. al. describes a device using a four-bar linkage structure that has the advantage of keeping the detenting system aligned. Otherwise, it is a single position door checking mechanism. The checking motion is rather small, probably resulting in significant variation in the checked position from vehicle to vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,056 to Griffin et. al. describes an infinite position door check that does not have an intermediate position. It uses a roller that rubs continuously on the friction surface resulting in a wear problem. It can also defeated by moisture, oil, or other contaminant etc. on the rubbing surfaces. For this reason, the hard rubber chosen as the friction surface is a poor choice since the friction coefficient is strongly influenced by surface films. The roller moves from one position to another based on differences in the friction coefficients between the biasing plunger and the hard rubber coated arcuate friction surface. This system requires adjustment when installing on vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,675 to Salazar describes a door hold open door check which is only engaged when the door is in the fully open position. Therefore, the parts are not under continual cyclical stress as which reduces the wear problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,568 to Lee et. al. describes an infinite position door check system based on a difference between a high static coefficient of friction and low sliding coefficient of friction such as nylon or polyurethane. This is unsustainable as surface films will radically change the friction coefficients. Since significant friction is always present, there is a wear problem resulting in a device with a short life without adjustment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,895 to Peebles describes a quick disconnect door hinge with an integral discrete position door check. It solves the problem of being able to paint the door on the body and then disassembling it for trimming and later reassembling it to the vehicle in an easy manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,243 to Anstaugh et al. describes the use of a polyester urethane material for coating the roller. This material is good from -40.degree. to 400.degree. F. and lasts substantially longer than nylon if it is backed up by metal. Additionally, it is substantially quieter than the nylon on metal system used in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,010 to Gignac et al. describes a detent system and shows the many different geometries that have been adopted by various vehicle manufacturers. It claims advantages in either the roller or the track having a resilient elastomer core, preferably an elastomer material (e.g., a silicone polymer) that retains its elastic properties over a wide temperature range.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,991 to Carswell addresses some of the force components that can cause noise and premature failure of door check mechanisms. The design described in this patent is a discrete door check that is claimed to be quite and have a long life. Once again, the contacting materials are discussed and this patent recommends coating the link arm with Milon by DuPont that is moldable material. The bearing ball purportedly provides three degrees of freedom where as the prior art devices with rollers allow for only two degrees of freedom with the result of a fair amount of grinding of the housing adjacent the edges or shoulders of the link member. The ball system gives point contact, therefore higher forces and therefore greater wear. It has not been rear that this problem can and has been solved in prior art devices by placing the rollers with their axes in a vertical direction. Although the ball rolls in the groove, on which the patent makes a great issue, it is sliding on the elastomeric spring that pushes it down. This sliding friction will cause wear and shorten the life of the door check.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,272 to Priest et al. describes a door hinge with infinitely adjustable detent or door check. It is significant since it is the first attempt to apply electronics to this problem. There is no obvious advantage to this overly complicated system since to deactivate the door holding system, the door must be moved which requires a force. The same force can be used to remove the detent in a pure mechanical system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,501 to Kramer et al. describes a device in which the detent force acts vertically so as to not load the pivot pin. However, in this case, the hinge pin is still loaded when the door is moved into and out of the detented positions and thus the problem is only partially solved. Any detenting system will put a couple onto the hinge pin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,344 to Lee describes a device which is almost a duplicate of the Carswell patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,991) except rollers are used instead of balls. In this patent, the body as well as the cover are all made from plastic. Significantly, there is a pad disclosed for the prevention of the introduction of foreign substances into the locking unit.
Although each of the above references attempts to solve one or more of the problems listed above, in contrast to the infinite position door check described herein, in no case is there provided an infinite door check mechanism which solves substantially all of these problems. As a result, there is no successful infinite door check in high volume commercial use at this time although the desire for such a device is well known in the industry.